(Online Course) Contemporary Issues for IAS Mains 2012: The Hindu - Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded

Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded

Q. Point out the finding s o f the Global Carbon Project?

• Emissions rose 5.9 per cent in 2010.

• According to an analysis released on Sunday by the Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists tracking the numbers. Scientists with the group said the increase.

• A half-billion extra tons of carbon pumped into the air, was almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution, and the largest percentage increase since 2003.

• The researchers said the high growth rate reflected a bounce-back from the 1.4 per cent drop in emissions in 2009, the year the recession had its biggest impact.

• The growth rate in the 1990s was closer to one per cent yearly.

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• The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions.

• This country is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, pumping 1.5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere last year.

• The United States was surpassed several years ago by China, where emissions grew 10.4 per cent in 2010, with that country injecting 2.2 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

• The rapid growth of emissions is warming the Earth, threatening the ecology and putting human welfare at long-term risk.

• The new figures show a continuation of a trend in which developing countries, including China and India, have surpassed the wealthy countries in their overall greenhouse emissions.

• In 2010, the combustion of fossil fuels and the production of cement sent more than nine billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, the new analysis found, with 57 per cent of that coming from developing countries.

• The fast rise in developing countries has been caused to a large extent by the growth of energy-intensive manufacturing industries.

• Many countries, as part of their response to the economic crisis, invested billions in programmes designed to make their energy systems greener. F More Radioactive Water Leaks at Japanese Plant

Q. What is Becquerel Petabecquerel?

• The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety France estimates that between March and mid-July, the amount of radioactive caesium 137 that had leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima Daiichi plant amounted to 27.1 petabecquerels, the greatest amount known to have been released from a single episode.

• A becquerel is a frequently used measure of radiation, and a petabecquerel is a million billion becquerels. F Some States Fight the Trend but …

Q. The Status of farm Suicides in India.

• NCRB data show Andhra Pradesh has seen the second worst increase in farm suicides among all States (after Maharashtra) over the last eight years for which data exist.

• However, five States did manage a significant decline in the average number of farm suicides each year between 2003 and 2010.

• Karnataka is amongst the worst five States which account for nearly two-thirds of farm suicides in the country.

• Karnataka remains the second worst State for farm suicides (in absolute numbers) after Maharashtra. It has seen 35,053 farmers kill themselves since 1995.

• West Bengal pulled off the biggest decline among all States. Its 2003-10 average is 436 lower than its figure for 1995-2002.

• The yearly average of farm suicides in Andhra Pradesh in this period was 711 higher than it was in 1995-02. In Maharashtra, the figure was 1,294 higher. Manipur’s average for 1995-2002 was one farm suicide.

• Tripura brought down its annual average by 90 in the second half, a drop of 78 per cent.

• The decline Kerala has managed (-221) is in many ways the most significant one.

• Across India, suicides amongst cash crop farmers are far higher than those amongst food crop growers. Cash crop farmers run far greater risks, incur much higher cultivation costs, and have to borrow a lot more money than their food crop-growing counterparts.

• Overall, 15 of 28 States showed worse averages in the second eight years. Across the entire 16 years from 1995-2010, more than a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide.

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